Kevin Durant isn’t pretending the finish line isn’t coming.
The former Golden State Warriors star, who helped Steve Kerr’s team win back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018 and took home NBA Finals MVP both times, said in a recent interview with Boardroom that he understands where he is in his career. Even while still playing at a level that keeps him among the league’s top talents when healthy, Durant knows the conversation around his age is only getting louder.
“It’s a young man’s sport," Durant said. "Even though I still feel like I can play, you constantly hear: ‘You’re 38,’ ‘you’re 39,’ ‘you’re starting to get up there in age.’
So yes, I’m aware of it. But I’ve given everything to this sport, and I’m at peace with whatever comes next.
I’m going to keep giving everything to basketball until I can’t anymore.”
Durant will turn 38 before the 2026-27 season begins, and he has two years left on his current two-year $90 million contract. The second year is a player option, which leaves his future something he’ll likely handle one season at a time.
His post-Warriors run hasn’t matched the heights of those championship years, with stops in Brooklyn, Phoenix, and now Houston not producing the same kind of success. Still, his standing as one of the NBA’s premier players remains intact.
For Warriors fans, the takeaway is simple: they already got the best of Durant. Now they’ll watch from a distance as he tries to squeeze out one more championship push before his Hall of Fame career finally winds down.
In Other News...
Warriors Fans Will Hate Where This Latest Spurs Hype Went
Charles Barkley already has the basketball world talking again, this time with a comparison that will land hard in the Bay Area. After praising Spurs guards Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, Barkley floated the idea that San Antonios young backcourt could grow into something reminiscent of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, a bar so high it practically comes with a warning label. The Spurs do have reasons to dream, with Victor Wembanyama anchoring a promising core and a pair of talented guards giving the franchise a new kind of upside.
For Warriors fans, the bigger issue is how casually those comparisons get made before anything has been earned. Curry and Thompson helped define an era, and matching even a slice of that success is a long way off for any young pair, no matter how much talent they show early. San Antonio also has its own roster questions to sort through as this core develops, and until those pieces settle, the new Steph and Klay talk feels more like a provocation than a prediction. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors Just Lost The Lakers Threat They Feared Most
LeBron James is no longer part of the Lakers regular-season picture, and for Golden State that changes the equation in a way that is hard to ignore. The Warriors had spent years dealing with a matchup problem unlike most others, because James consistently seemed to raise his level when these teams crossed paths and gave Golden State a very specific kind of trouble on both ends of the floor.
The Lakers have already shifted their attention toward Luka Doncic in the wake of James departure, but the immediate effect for the Warriors is simpler: one fewer proven problem to game-plan around. Even if Los Angeles still has enough talent to matter, the absence of James removes the player who has so often made that rivalry feel heavier, more physical and a little more personal for Golden State. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors May Have Avoided A Ben Simmons Role Problem
Ben Simmons latest stop came with a familiar wrinkle, as Sacramento officially signed him and listed him as a 6-foot-10 guard, keeping the conversation around his best NBA role alive. Rich Paul has suggested Simmons could be used more like a center in pick-and-roll looks, but the Kings current roster does not appear built to make that experiment easy, which makes the fit feel a little awkward before the season even gets going.
For the Warriors, the intrigue had looked a bit different. Golden State had shown interest in Simmons and could have tried to use him as a backup point guard or a versatile forward, the kind of Swiss Army piece that sometimes finds a lane in their system. Even then, he would have had to win a preseason roster spot over Brandon Williams, so the path was never going to be automatic, and the latest Sacramento move suggests the Warriors may have sidestepped a role puzzle before it reached their own locker room. [Read more 🡒]